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Academic Vocabulary Outperforms ESL Beginner Words

posted on December 6, 2018

It breaks my heart when I read a thesis filled with ESL beginner level words. In this post, I will give you a list of words you must not use in academic writing. Also, I will tell you how to use Microsoft Word to remove them all.

Clearly, the theses I read have fairly good English. That’s because a high level of English is required for university study. In fact, the theses I read always use of a broad range of high-level vocabulary.

Therefore, the issue is not whether the student can use a broad range of academic vocabulary. Instead, it is whether the student has done a final check for academic vocabulary after writing his or her thesis.

B. Well (Adv – as in ‘done well’)In brief, the education reforms were implementedwellthoroughly, extensively and efficiently.

C. Good/Bad (Adj)Therefore, the good sides tokey benefits ofboring wells in local communities target their women and children.

D. To get (V – meaning ‘to receive’ or ‘to acquire’)In short, rising exports means a country getsreceives an increased inflow of capital.

E. Poor/Rich (Adj – referring to wealth)However, the governments of poorerless developed countries can seek financial aid from richermore developed countries.

F. Basically (Adv – a linking word meaning ‘in summary’ or ‘put simply’)BasicallyIn essence, the unfettered censorship of the media by the government results in a biased, positive view of the government.

G. Big or Huge/Small (Adj)This resulted in a bigsizeable number of resignations by politicians who had opposed the bill.

H. Thing (N)By contrast, one thingaction the government could dotake1 is to create an independent commission against corruption.

I. Strong/weak (Adv)Fortunately, the African Union enables its weakdeveloping nations to have a louder voice against the strongestsuperpower2 nations of the world.

J. Happy/sad (Adj)Unfortunately, the consequences for the state’s citizens are saddistressing, being increased poverty and higher rates of crime.

2The word ‘superpower’ is a noun. Therefore, ‘superpower’ is not a direct word-for-word substitute for the comparative adjective ‘stronger’. However, this more academic vocabulary still meets our need in this example. This is because we haven’t changed the originally intended meaning of the sentence. Therefore, the compound noun ‘superpower nations’ is a suitable academic substitute for ‘strongest nations’.

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About the Author

Tony is a member of the Australian Institute of Professional Editors who regularly edits university theses for international students.

He has had 30 articles published in international newspapers and magazines on the topic of Business English. He has also taught 13,000 hours of ESL classes, including Advanced level English for Academic Purposes for direct entry to Australian universities.

Tony also holds a Bachelor of International Studies from the University of Adelaide and a Postgraduate Diploma in English language Teaching to Adults (DELTA) from the University of Cambridge.